Muse In Hiding
by CaptainDan52
Summary: When is a muse more than just a muse?
1. Chapter 1

_Elated to see the Teseral gone at last, his former subjects could finally be free._

Ben glared at the rough draft he had just written, checked the time, and then slouched into his desk chair.

"One down, several thousand to go," he sighed.

He was trying one of those prompts where you start with the last sentence of a story and then work backwards.

Unfortunately, no matter how hard he tried, he never managed to finish anything.

Sure, he got a few short stories published, and he did like some of them.

But he had an ambition to write something truly great, which probably explains why he spent an entire year planning the story before he even started writing it just now.

Ben had a TV turned to the news, which served as background noise to help him focus.

Or at least, that's what he'd tell himself so he'd feel less guilty about procrastinating.

A news reporter started talking about a "recent tragedy."

Ben let out a chuckle and pretended to ask the news reporter, "Which one?"

There were so many headlines in the past few years about tragic events that he no longer felt shocked about them.

If anything, he'd feel disappointed that his show was a work of fiction and that he couldn't actually do anything to stop them.

He figured the most he could do is to embrace that whole "art reflect life" mentality, and incorporate more topical elements into his writings, with the hope that people could relate and maybe even do something (whatever that means).

Just then, his phone beeped.

"What's this?" thought Ben as he picked up his cell phone.

 _1 NEW TEXT MESSAGE FROM "INDY"_

"Indy" was the nickname he gave to Kai Green.

They'd managed to stay in touch for some time; even though her character on the show wasn't exactly a unanimous fan favorite, he did like her a lot.

 _Hey! I'm taking a bus into town later today. Wanna meet up?_

Ben was pleasantly surprised by this, though he figured that might've been the point.

He thought for a moment.

"Eh, I could use a little break."

He answered her text.

 _Sure. When?_

She responded.

 _Around 11_

Ben was about to check his schedule when she immediately sent a follow-up text.

 _Funny, I kind of expected you to ask me when I get off_

Ben chuckled a little.

 _You know, I actually didn't think of that, but it's probably for the best_

He bid her farewell, put the phone down, moved away from his computer, and then started getting ready.

. . . . .

 **A/N: There's a fan theory that the main characters in the Mario games are all just actors. This story exists in a universe that functions under a similar premise.**

 **Reviews are appreciated.**


	2. Chapter 2

Aside from 2 or 3 other people, the bus stop was empty . . . not that Ben was complaining.

He brought one of his notebooks with him so he could look busy while he waited for Kai's bus, when he was actually just flipping randomly through the pages and seeing what was written on them so far.

Kai knew about his writing, and in fact thought highly of it.

Then again, her tastes were a little . . . unconventional (she referred to herself as a "Mia Wallace type").

He landed on a page with a plot summary for some literary commission she had requested from him...

 _Erotic celebrity fan fiction - two female singers, Tori and Taylor, engaging in lesbian sex - Tori's a doe-eyed pop starlet who wears her Christianity on her modestly dressed sleeve - Taylor's a hard rock chick who is essentially Tori's polar opposite - scene is set to Led Zeppelin's "Since I've Been Loving You"_

Ben kinda liked the idea, but every time he tried to work on it, he'd get writer's block and put it away for another time (or so he'd claim to avoid suspicion).

Before he could think about it any longer, Kai's bus appeared and braked a few feet away from the bench where Ben was sitting.

Kai walked off the bus in a thin silver-grey jacket over a red shirt with jeans and sneakers.

She wasn't really a tomboy or anything; just unconventional.

They said "hi" to each other, and were catching up on each other's lives as they walked to Ben's car.


	3. Chapter 3

There was a party of 12 next to Ben and Kai at the diner, and they were talking so loudly that she couldn't even hear herself think.

Only after they walked out of the diner did Kai finally calm down and try to start a conversation.

"Word on the street is you went back to school. How's that going?"

Ben silently glared at her, with a look of apprehension in his eyes.

He didn't like talking about his academics, because other people would judge and lecture him as if they had nothing better to do.

Kai would do her best to withhold judgment, but Ben was still reluctant to talk about school.

She took his lack of enthusiasm as a cue to change topics.

"No? Alright. Then how do you feel about the show getting a reboot?"

Ben finally spoke.

"To be honest, I stopped caring after the second spin-off, so I don't have a lot of faith left for this one."

Kai let out a light chuckle and asked, "So they must've paid you a lot to do it, then."

He rolled his eyes.

"They didn't pay me anything because I never had, nor will have, anything to do with it. I mean, for a brief moment, it might have looked good on paper. But all good things come to an end, and a story has to end at some point. Otherwise, it just stops being interesting."

Kai nodded in agreement.

"So what do you thi-"

Just then, her cell phone rang.

"It's my grandfather," she checked the caller ID. "I'm really sorry, but he'll probably want me to answer this."

"Go ahead," Ben assured her.

Kai got up from her chair and walked outside to take the call.

Ben could still see her from where he was sitting, though her back was turned to him.

While Kai was talking, a waitress came over with the bill, a pen, and Ben's credit card.

He thanked her, put the credit card back in his wallet, and then put the bill and pen on the table.

When he looked back over at Kai, she hung up the phone and let her face fall into her hand in apparent exasperation.

She came back in like she had just walked through New York City for 10 hours.

Ben turned around and signed the bill, acting like he wasn't watching her phone call.

He set the pen down and looked up at Kai, who was now standing next to him.

"Ben, I need you to do me a favor."


	4. Chapter 4

"So, _why_ exactly do you need to stay at my place?"

"If I may," Kai began to elaborate as Ben's car approached the street where he lived, "let me try and give you the long answer."

According to her, a meth dealer had escaped from prison about a week or two ago.

The cops went looking for him, and they found a Mexican guy, having a smoke break outside of the convenience store where he worked, who they suspected was working with the dealer.

They started questioning the man, but due to some kind of misunderstanding, the situation escalated and ended with the cops shooting and killing the guy turned out to be innocent.

The cops tried covering it up, and ultimately didn't get charged with killing an unarmed - and ultimately innocent - civilian.

While protests of the police killing were peaceful at first, riots began when some lunatic from out of state shot two off-duty cops.

Eventually, the situation became so bad that the governor declared a state of emergency.

Because of that, she can't fly back to New Mexico for a while, which is why she asked Ben to do her a favor and let her stay at his place in the meantime.

"Look, Indy, you know I live alone. Aside from the fact that we've been close for some time, what reason would you have to settle for my place?"

"I settled for you, didn't I?"

Ben inwardly swore at himself for figuratively walking right into that one.

He would often ask her why she would want to settle with him, and she'd always give a different smart-ass answer every time, presumably as another way of messing with him.

"I'm kidding," assured Kai as he neared his apartment.

"Granted, your place isn't exactly on par with Versailles, but as long as it's got running water, Wi-Fi, and a working thermostat, it's fine by me. Also, I kinda feel bad for you having to live alone."

"I appreciate your concern," he parked the car.

"But in all honesty, if it's alright with you, I can live without it."

"Oh, I forgot," she remarked as she unbuckled her seat belt and stepped out of the car. "You wouldn't take anything from anybody, would you?"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

She abstained from answering, but instead simply got out of the car and approached the entrance to Ben's place.

He rolled his eyes as he reached to unbuckle his seat belt.


	5. Chapter 5

"Here we are."

Ben unlocked his apartment door, and courteously offered to let Kai go first.

It was a small apartment, but it provided a pretty nice view of the sunset (at least, whenever Ben cared enough to notice).

Gwen had actually lent him the apartment after she got a new place with Kevin.

They didn't give him much in the way of instructions on maintenance or anything, but Kevin did suggest "hosing the kitchen down" for reasons that, judging by Gwen's expression, Ben was probably better off not knowing.

Kai looked at him skeptically.

"I can see you're trying to be a gentleman. But this is still clearly an excuse for you to check out my ass, isn't it?"

"Well, Professor," Ben answered, crossing his arms in front of him as he leaned against the door, "you're the one with the 'look, but don't touch' policy, so you tell me: why would I need an excuse?"

"Just don't go thinking you're entitled to have whatever you want however you want it."

"Since when do I think like that off-screen?"

"You don't, thankfully, but better safe than sorry."

Kai walked over to the couch (while Ben watched her from the door, unsurprisingly) and placed her bag by her feet as she sat down.

"Listen," he locked the door, "I have some work I need to finish. You want me to get you anything?"

"No, thanks. Still making ends meet as a writer, I take it?"

"Something like that. What about you?"

"I've been trying to put together a band."

"And how's that coming along?"

"Let's just say, if we were getting anywhere, I would've told you by now."

Ben nodded, wished her luck, and headed back to his writing desk.


	6. Chapter 6

_"In time," t_ _he Teseral grinned in anticipation,_ _"I will realize my ambition, and they will all pay."_

Ben looked at what he had just written, and then promptly erased everything after the word, "ambition."

"And they will all pay" didn't seem to fit well with Ben's vision of the character.

Not to mention, it was a very overdone cliché, and he went out of his way to avoid using those.

There had to be something that could give the sentence an end as good as "some dish with Wonder Woman's birthmark," as Kai would say.

Ben had been working on this story of his for quite some time.

He had a pretty lofty vision of the finished product: a grand science fiction/fantasy epic that he hoped would, some day, be as revered as one or both of the two "star" franchises.

He attempted to ensure this by, among other things, "borrowing" elements of those franchises, and changing enough details (usually starting with the names) so he could feel reasonably convinced that he definitely wasn't committing plagiarism.

For example, his story's version of the Galactic Empire from "Star Wars" is "Umbora."

Instead of Stormtroopers, the soldiers serving Umbora are "Bucklers."

And instead of Darth Vader or Darth Sidious/Emperor Palpatine or whoever, the leader of Umbora (and, by extension, the Bucklers) is "The Teseral."

Also, rather than just being unambiguously evil like the Galactic Empire, the Klingon Empire, or Congress, the depiction of Umbora and its leadership will be more nuanced, like what "Star Trek" would probably have.

For that reason, Ben tried to avoid giving The Teseral what he considered stereotypically villainous behavior in favor of a somewhat different approach.

Thus, he put a lot of effort into making The Teseral a megalomaniac who didn't let trivialities like acceptable social etiquette get in the way of the delusion that he was more powerful and had more control over things than he really did or would've cared to admit.

Even in context, that "in time" quote is essentially The Teseral just acting out a delusion of grandeur.

Additionally, the two highest-ranking Bucklers (collectively known as "The Hemorrhoids") are, respectively, an irritating, overdramatic buzzkill and an individual who, without exaggeration, may have the worst sense of humor ever.

In other words, he made them as annoying and unlikable as possible.

The line remained unfinished for a few seconds before the Jeopardy music in his head was interrupted by music, coming faintly from the other room.

The music could only have one possible source: Kai's MP3 player.

Ben wasn't entirely sure, but he thought the music sounded like the intro of "Station To Station."

That's when a lightbulb went off in his head, and he figured out the rest of the sentence.

 _"I will realize my ambition, and they will all be brought down beneath my station."_


	7. Chapter 7

The view of the outside world from Ben's living room window was like a camera lens focused on a postcard landscape.

Kai absently twiddled locks of her black hair through her fingers as she leaned against the window stool and watched, allowing for a moment to let her problems fall from her mind like hairpins.

Her biggest problem - if one were to call it that - was difficult to put into words, but would perhaps be best exemplified in "The Most Dangerous Game Show."

She was originally going to be brought back in Ultimate Alien, as part of a story arc so vast and complex that it would've made "BioShock: Infinite" look like a nursery rhyme.

But because of the potential size and scale of the arc, which Kai estimated would've lasted the better part of a whole season, it was almost entirely cut out.

The writers then re-purposed parts of the episodes in that arc for Omniverse as a sort of consolation to Kai.

Unfortunately, what ended up in Omniverse did not impress her.

In fact, she gave the show's writers so much crap about it, they made her the winner of "The Most Dangerous Game Show" just to appease her.

That didn't work, as she found the episode's premise incredibly demeaning.

So much so that she ad-libbed the bit about being a "damsel in distress" and basically dared the crew to edit it out, but because the crew didn't want to keep putting up with Kai's admittedly valid complaints, they let her keep the line.

In a ridiculous competition where the female participants had to win the first round by not talking, Kai won the whole competition, in large part because she (along with plenty of other women) spoke her mind.

Kai thought about that, as if her reflection in the window was reminding her, and chuckled softly when she realized the irony.


	8. Chapter 8

"Damn thermostat," Ben muttered through his chattering teeth as he walked out of his room.

"You know," Kai turned her head away from the window back to the source of Ben's voice, "I'd tell you to 'chill,' but I'm pretty sure you already had an alien for that."

"I did," Ben opened the hallway closet and took out a jacket, "but if that was Big Chill's only shtick, he might as well have had an Austrian accent."

"Like how that crab alien had the accent of that 'Family Guy' baby?"

"Yes," he sighed as he put on the jacket, "Brainstorm had a British accent for no good reason, but that doesn't make him the same as that 'Family Guy' baby."

"Really? I seem to recall one episode in which he said, 'What the deuce?'"

"Oh yeah . . . can't believe I forgot about that."

"Going somewhere?" she asked, referring to the jacket as she walked up to him.

"Why would I go anywhere now? It's, like, 11:30. And even if something is still open, it feels like a two-dog night."

"Don't you mean 'three-dog night'?"

"No. According to some excessively enraged fans, we're already two dogs; you're the formal term for a female dog, and I'm the son of one."

The young woman let out an agitated sigh.

Despite the fact that she only had a speaking role in one episode from the original series, Kai had been on the brunt end of a lot of unnecessary outrage over that thing about "wanting to train Ben."

No one was complaining, because the reactions could hardly have been considered "complaining."

Instead, looking at the reactions, one would think Kai made a YouTube video about sexism in video games.

The only "complaint" that made any kind of sense was a post on an online forum that said she was better suited to a career in the "People for Unethical Treatment of Animals."

Kai thought that one was admittedly kinda clever, since she understood both Spanish and acronyms, but that was very much the exception.

Every other "complaint" was just typical online commenter bile, most of which was misguidedly focused on Kai's chastity (or lack thereof).

That, and ultimately being dissatisfied with reprising her role in Omniverse, pretty much turned her off to a full-time career in acting.

"Hey, I'm just the messenger," reminded Ben. "You know I'd never say that about you."

"Thanks."

"Now if you'll excuse me, I have some thawing to do."

"Mind if I join you?"

Ben looked at her with a slightly surprised expression for a second or two, before gladly welcoming her to join him.

He was never one to say "no" to a face (and body) like hers.


	9. Chapter 9

_Realizing the need for a countermeasure, the Teseral gathered Umbora's most senior advisors to consider their options._

Ben moved his writing hand and let it rest for a few moments on a stack of fan mail.

But before he could go on, he got distracted by a drop of water that fell and landed on his upper arm.

Kai was sitting next to him, with her wrist rested on the back of his chair with her hand dangling over his shoulder.

Her hands were still wet from washing a cereal bowl in the kitchen sink about a minute ago.

Ben moved some papers to keep them from getting wet.

"Sorry," she said. "Those aren't important, are they?"

"No, not really. They're probably just part of the rough draft for an old story."

"Another story bit the dust, huh?"

Kai looked over some of the writing on the topmost sheet, labeled "WORKING TITLES," and noticed one of the few items that didn't get crossed out.

"'Theseus And His Tin Sailors'?"

"Oh, that one! So there's a society, where the very rich have a supply of spare body parts and organs in case their body parts and organs got damaged or something. Problem was, I couldn't figure out whether I should give them mechanical replacements, or have them get their body parts from prisoners."

"How would they get prisoners' body parts?"

"The best I could think up was a deadly competition kind of thing where either death row inmates or prisoners in general fought each other gladiator style. The ones who died would have their body parts and organs harvested for the rich, while the survivors went free."

Kai tried unsuccessfully to hold in a laugh.

"What?" he demanded.

"I just couldn't help but imagine some body parts being more highly demanded than others."

He groaned, thinking he would tell her to grow up if it wasn't a case of calling the kettle black.

"But anyway, you can't decide which would be a better story?"

Ben shook his head.

"Or even how to combine them?"

Again, he shook his head.

Kai seemed to ponder this for a few moments.

"Hmmm . . . what if the rich had the prisoners fight each other and harvest the body parts of the losers? Then someone discovers a way to make mechanical replacements, but the rich keep holding the fights anyway, just for amusement?"

All of a sudden, Ben reached over and kissed her ecstatically.

Once he finally let go, he exclaimed, "This is why I love you!"

He gathered a bunch of papers and excitedly took them into his bedroom with him.

Kai remained in her chair, still pleasantly taken by surprise.

She slowly rose out of her chair and followed the path to Ben's room.


	10. Chapter 10

"Uh-huh . . . Yeah, I've been staying over at Ben's place . . . Seriously? . . . Oh, that's great! . . . Yeah, you too, Grampa. Okay, bye."

Ben didn't bother eavesdropping on Kai's phone call, despite the fact that she was standing just outside of his room and thus could be heard more than clearly.

Now he had a creative burst and he spent what must have been several hours being so engulfed in getting it into the story.

The young woman then walked into Ben's room, and leaned her svelte self against the wall across from his bed.

"What happened?"

He couldn't be bothered to look up from his laptop just then.

"I have good news and great news! Which do you want first?"

"How about the great news?"

"Remember that dealer I mentioned? The cops caught him, and they traced him to that cowpie running for president."

Ben thought to himself, "Sounds like something I'd put in a story."

"The good news is, now that they caught the guy, all that rioting business simmered down, and the next flight back to New Mexico is in 3 days."

"By 'the next flight back,' you mean the one you're taking?"

She nodded.

"Oh, what a shame. This story's just starting to get somewhere in between crazy and good."

"You need me that badly, huh?"

He shrugged, "Just enough to keep my hands busy."

Kai was agitated by that response, and started glaring at him with her arms crossed in front of her.

"'Just enough'?"

It took Ben a second to realize what he said before he put his laptop aside and looked up at her.

"I'm sorry, Indy. That's not what I meant. Please don't take it the wrong way."

"I'm not angry," she responded, "just a little agitated. But I get it: you misspoke. I'm not gonna give you hell for that. I will give you hell, however, if you're not gonna at least try to learn from that mistake."

"Yeah, of course."

"Good."

The young woman turned to leave, but stopped suddenly as she thought of something and turned back to Ben.

"Hey, Ben."

"Yes, Jerry?"

"No hard feelings, OK?"

"No, ma'am."

"Alright, 'cause as a token of good will, I have something I'd like to show you."

"Do you?"

Letting curiosity get the better of him, he obliged her and followed her out of the room.


	11. Chapter 11

Much of the fan mail Ben had received since the show ended consisted of fan fiction and requests for Ben's feedback on said fan fiction.

There were some good ones for sure, and plenty more that were bad and/or full of too many grammatical errors for him to clearly understand what the heck was going on, but the inexplicable "adult" fan fictions (especially the ones in which Ben has a "harem") really stood out to him, and not in a good way.

It wasn't exactly top secret information that Ben had more than a few romantic pairings on the show, especially in Omniverse.

His problem with that wasn't just that a supposed loser with a terrible personality still managed to score way more dates than he could have in real life, but also that it was kind of unfair to the female characters.

Why does Kai get called names for NOT wanting to hook up with Ben in the original series, but almost no one bats an eye if Ben has at least 8 or 9 love interests throughout the show?

Seriously, Kevin (from Alien Force onward) had a way more stable love life than Ben, and Kevin was the Han Solo-type of the series.

In fact, Ben himself wrote "The Most Dangerous Game Show" as a satirical critique of the "harem" fan fictions and the ridiculous ways the show covered both Ben's love life and female characters in general.

So Kai knows that he at least tries to respect women, which was more than she could say about half the people in government.

Ben found her on the living room couch, searching her bag for something.

"Do you remember about two years ago," she asked, "when you showed me that story based on Kevin's first episode in the original series?"

"I guess so. Why?"

She finally pulled out a CD case containing a disc with the words, "Malfunction (Demo)," written on it in marker.

"It gave me an idea for a song. But I got so carried away that I ended up with an EP's worth of material."

"You've been working on that for two years?"

"Oh no, this took about a month. I just kept forgetting to tell you about it."

She stood back up and handed it to him.

"Thanks," he said, examining the disc in his hands. "Should I listen to it now?"

When he looked up to her again, she was already on her way out of the room.

"Knock yourself out. I'll be in the shower if you need me."

Ben stood for a moment, following her with his eyes.

"Would you mind if I joined you?"

Kai turned back around, taken a little by surprise, and saw he had a kind of eager expression on his face like a VS Angel was begging to have his baby.

"If you're not ready in 3 minutes, I'm getting started without you."

Then she disappeared from his sight.


	12. Chapter 12

"Pretty cold move, not letting me know when you were leaving."

Kai was at the airport, waiting at the gate for her flight to start boarding.

Gwen apparently wanted to see her before she left, even if it meant bringing Kevin with her, which she did.

"Sorry," excused Kai, looking up at the couple as they were standing next to her seat. "Ben told me you would've been too busy."

"Oh, we're not so busy that we can't leave the house. Where is he, anyway?"

"Food court."

Gwen let out a small laugh, "Sounds about right. How have you been?"

"Not bad. Still studying for that Master's degree?"

"Funny you should mention that; I'm finally getting it in a few months."

"Nice. What's your thesis?"

"I haven't had to start writing it yet, but I had a few ideas."

"So, I take it you couldn't decide on one."

"Actually," Kevin added, "she did. It's about whether a country's wealth has any connection to its position on gender equality."

"Does it?" asked Kai.

Gwen shrugged, "I'm not sure. I've only just started doing the research."

"It's kinda weird that it took her so long to get started," he remarked, "considering how much she loves research."

She rolled her eyes, turned to Kevin and spoke to him, sotto voce.

Kai couldn't hear most of it, since Kevin and Gwen's lowered voices were now drowned out by the rest of the airport noise around them.

She managed to pick up on "bite mark" and "a literal pain in the ass," but anything beyond that would've caused her to burst out laughing.


	13. Chapter 13

Folding another napkin around the cinnamon sugar-coated pretzel in his hand, Ben returned to Kai's gate from the food court.

He was as pleasantly surprised as she was to discover Kevin and Gwen had made an impromptu appearance.

They greeted him, but then remarked that their schedule wouldn't allow them to stay for more than a few minutes.

"Don't take it the wrong way," Kevin assured him, "but we can only keep the kid waiting in the car for so long, you know?"

So they bid each other farewell, and wished Kai a safe flight.

Kai waited for the couple to be too far away to hear her tell Ben, "'Have a safe flight.' Like I have any control over that."

Ben broke off a piece of the pretzel and offered it to her.

"No, thanks. I'll just have some fry bread when I get back home."

He shrugged and promptly ate the piece.

 _Attention, passengers._

A woman's voice broke through over the loudspeaker.

 _We are now going to begin boarding the next flight to Albuquerque International._

The announcement repeated in Spanish as a handful of people started forming in front of the gate to Kai's flight.

"Guess we'll catch up again later?" Kai wondered aloud as she got out her boarding pass.

"Yep. Good luck with everything in the meantime."

She kissed him briefly.

"Same to you."

As she started walking up to the line, Ben added, "Say 'hi' to Wes for me when you get there."

Kai held up her right arm and gave him an "okay" gesture as she kept on walking.

When he got back into his car, wiping his hands of the last crumbs of the pretzel, he was about to buckle his seat belt, but suddenly stopped himself.

He reached for the laptop case on the floor behind him, took out the laptop and opened up the text for his story.

At the top of the page, he typed:

 _Stannic Overboard_

 _Dedicated to Kai Green_


End file.
